Not every person knows the history of his surname, but everyone for whom family values ​​and ties of kinship matter strives to find relatives and establish connections with them. The Family Tree website is happy to help you in this good endeavor. Finding ancestors is not an easy task; for this you will need to rummage through the family archive and make all sorts of inquiries, but finding relatives on the Internet is much easier. Family sites operating within our portal are named after the surname of their founder. After looking through the list, you can find relatives by last name, if, of course, the history of the last names of the people you are interested in coincides with yours. “Who were my ancestors?” - You can search for free for those who will help with the answer on the “Family Tree”, filtering family sites by last name.

With us, searching for ancestors by last name becomes easy and fast, and most importantly, it is always free and accessible. “I want to find relatives,” new users often write to us. Well, we will definitely help you do this!

Even if a search engine is unable to help you find ancestors by last name, then “Family Tree” is at your service! The history of the surname can no longer remain a secret to you! To find your ancestors, just join us. As you know, whoever searches will find, and in your case, he will also find it quickly and for free. Communicate, interact, and very soon you will receive an answer to the question: “Who were my ancestors?”

Many Russians study their genealogies and try to find relatives from whom they were separated due to circumstances.

But not everyone knows that the Internet can be of great help in this. And those who know do not always know how to use thematic resources and programs.

Your ancestors on the Internet

The largest and most popular is the All-Russian Family Tree website (www.vgd.ru). It maintains an extensive database of people, their years of life, places of birth and burial. To fully use the site, you must register on the local forum (forum.vgd.ru).

Already from the main page of the “All-Russian Family Tree” you can start searching for relatives and namesakes - you just need to click on the link with the appropriate name. The page that opens will display a list of names, each of which is a link to a particular section of the forum, where some site visitors help others find information.

Having found your last name, click on it - a page with links to the forum section will open. If the information published there did not help you, you can ask a question to the forum regulars.

In the “Knowledge Base” section on the “All-Russian Family Tree” website there is also an impressive list of personalities, sorted alphabetically. Users also add information about their relatives (who could easily turn out to be relatives of other people). You can do this to help someone continue to compile their family tree. If your name is on the list, you can publish information about yourself and what you know about your relatives. If there is no surname, click on the “Add dictionary entry” link. Another site that may be useful is FamilySpace (www.familyspace.ru). The creators call it "the territory of relatives." With its help, you can not only find relatives, but also create a family tree.

During registration, you will be asked to enter your first and last name, as well as parent information. You get access to your very real family tree - it is displayed in the form of a hierarchical structure via the "My Tree" link. There are green arrows around each “personal card” - they allow you to add information about new relatives. For example, clicking on the arrow pointing to the left of a father's "card" will allow information about his brothers or sisters to be entered into the database. After you have added new “fruits” to your tree, you can invite your relatives to the site so that they can fill out their own questionnaires in more detail. Of course, for this a person must have access to the Internet and use by email- that’s where the invitation will go. In addition, the FamilySpace website allows you to search for people by last name, first name, patronymic and other parameters - for example, by place of birth. If the person you need has not been found, you can submit a search ad, and then other members of the resource will help you.

FamilySpace also contains an archive section where you can search through documents dating back a century. Among them are city directories of Moscow and St. Petersburg, documents from the Vologda and Nizhny Novgorod provinces, etc. There are also military reference books - for example, a list of heroes of the Great Patriotic War.

Pedigree

on the computer

It is also worth talking about programs that allow you to build a family tree without resorting to the Internet. One of them is called “Tree of Life” (www.genery.com/ru) and exists in the form of free and paid versions. The free version does not allow you to add more than forty people to the database. However, it is quite useful for building a small family tree. The program recommended by the creators of the All-Russian Family Tree website is called GenoPro (www.genopro.com/ru). Its free version also limits the number of people in one tree - no more than twenty-five.

Finally, I would like to warn you that when trying to compile a pedigree, you may encounter fraud. Do not trust sites that offer to “create a family tree using your last name” and make payments via SMS. Building a family tree is a long and painstaking task, and it should be done by professionals. Well, it’s best to start studying your ancestry yourself.

Dictionary

A genealogy site is an Internet resource that allows you to track your pedigree, build a family tree, and find relatives.

Genealogy program is a computer application that helps you build family trees and stores information on your disk.

The next issue will be devoted to Internet encyclopedias - we will talk about what a “people's encyclopedia” is and how to read TSB on the Internet.

Question answer

- Please tell me how the sites vkontakte.ru and vk.com differ from each other. Is the second one a scam?

Recently, social networks have acquired “double addresses.” Thus, the VKontakte website can be opened either at vkontakte.ru or vk.com. Odnoklassniki did the same - they have addresses odnoklassniki.ru and ok.ru. But if the address is different from those written above, and appearance site looks like a real one, then most likely this is a resource of attackers, which is better to leave. And even more so, you shouldn’t enter a password there.

- Can you recommend a site to study? in English to avoid taking courses? Preferably free.

The sites www.lingualeo.ru and www.studynow.ru seemed good to me. In addition to the traditional “textbook rules” and dictionaries, they contain audio and video materials (including popular songs and TV series recent years), as well as interactive dictations and other exercises that allow you to immerse yourself more deeply in the language environment and learn to pronounce words correctly. Good luck!

Questions to Anton Blagoveshchensky can be asked at: internet@site

https://www.site/2019-03-29/kak_uznat_svoyu_rodoslovnuyu_i_postroit_genealogicheskoe_drevo_instrukciya_ot_site

Bringing back memory

How to find out your ancestry and build a family tree. Instructions from the site

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Regularly encountering news about the next closure of archival funds or reading about the noble origins of famous personalities, meeting the pedigrees of characters in novels, many of us remember our own family tree, some even decide to compile it..

Talk to your family

Start by asking about your family and ancestors. Come visit your parents and grandparents, ask them to tell you about the origins of your family - some they know themselves, some from the stories of their parents. Ask about each family member - when and where they were born ( exact date and place), who his parents were (names, professions), whether there were brothers and sisters, who was older and who was younger, with whom and when they were married, if there were children - dates of birth and names. It is worth collecting information not only about direct ancestors, but also about side lines (siblings, uncles and aunts, cousins, and so on), about other marriages, even childless ones.

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Systematize your data

Format - cards for each family member (card index), electronic document, several sheets of paper, a separate notebook, a page on a special genealogical service - it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s easy for you to navigate. The end result should be either a collection of encyclopedicly brief but accurate biographies, or a detailed family tree, or both.

Carefully study the family archive

Any family archive is based on documents, photographs, memoirs (if any). You may need your grandfather’s military ID, your grandmother’s certificate of rehabilitation, as well as questionnaires and autobiographies, work records and, of course, birth, marriage, divorce, and death certificates. Photos can also give you directions to search (especially if they are captioned), and looking at old photo albums with relatives is very helpful in refreshing memories and maintaining a dialogue about roots and ancestors. You can restore lost birth, marriage and death certificates at the registry office at the place of residence of those relatives whose copies of documents you want to receive.

Understand the geography

You will have an exciting journey along the map of the country (perhaps even a non-existent one), coupled with reference books and search engines: some settlements changed their names, others changed their administrative-territorial affiliation, and others disappeared altogether. It is very important to determine the place of birth, residence and burial of your ancestors - thanks to this, you can then find the missing information in the archives and get certainty about which archive you should contact.

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If the ancestors are nobles

It's rare, but it also happens. Most likely, one of your distant ancestors may turn out to be a scion of a noble family: the bulk of the nobles disappeared after the October Revolution - some died in civil war or emigrated, others became victims of Soviet repression. Having found a nobleman on your tree, you can exhale - work will go easier along his line. All noble families that had the right to a coat of arms were recorded in special directories (armourial books), so that, knowing the surname, you can find the coat of arms, and then the genealogy. If your noble ancestors did not belong to noble families, do not be upset - they probably achieved nobility through diligent military or public service or scientific achievements. If your ancestors are not among this class, do not be upset again - it is believed that nobles in the Russian Empire were no more than 1% of the total population of the country.

Use search engines and social networks

If an ancestor participated in WWII

In almost every region of Russia, a book of memory of participants in the Great Patriotic War has been created, and there are also websites “Feat of the People”, “Memorial” and “Memory of the People” - they collect documentary information about millions of defenders of the country, military graves, and so on.

If an ancestor goes missing in a war

Most likely, such information is in the above-mentioned databases of the Ministry of Defense. There is a high probability that your ancestor actually died, but this version needs to be checked. Go to the search party forums, look for the name of your missing relative, and if you don’t find it, ask a question. People who dedicate their free time search and reburial of the fallen, they can give you advice or even find your loved one using photographs of obelisks of mass graves, lists of the wounded, or other means. If the information is not found, you will need to contact the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense.

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If the ancestor was repressed

Again, consult databases and memory books. For example, created by the Memorial society, which includes information about hundreds of thousands of repressed people, including those on the “Stalinist execution lists.” In many regions, memory books were prepared - paper or electronic. There are also separate books in memory of the Volga Germans, evicted and exiled to camps only because of their origin. You can find these memory books on the Internet or in the regional library. There is also a database for the Last Address memorial project. If you don’t find information in these sources, you will have to contact the archives (possibly even of other countries) for an archival investigation (this is a separate quest) or to the information center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the place of residence of a relative - such information centers store information about all dispossessed, exiled, prisoners.

Archives and metric books

Most of the documents you need are stored in archives, and access to them is almost inevitable. There are federal and regional archives. The Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), in particular, stores cases of inclusion in the nobility - so if you have suspicions of descent from one of the families, you can check this information at the RGIA. Files for many representatives of the clergy and some metric books are also kept there. But the bulk of the metric books are in regional archives (not city, but regional).

What are metric books? These are three large books from a specific parish (church district assigned to a specific church) - about baptism, about marriage, about death. Very detailed information was entered into the metric books. An example of a wedding record, divided into four columns: names of those getting married; Book entry number; wedding number (in this case, 5); when, where, who and according to the number of announcements (after how many) the marriage took place; which newlyweds, what class, age and parish; who are the newlyweds' parents by name and nickname, who are the guarantors or witnesses. The baptismal record indicates the date of birth and date of baptism, the gender of the baby, by whom the child was baptized (the name and position of the priest), under what name and with all the rituals, who the parents are (for example, from the peasants of the Kherson province), what their names are (including including the mother's maiden name), as well as the names of the godparents (fathers). The burial record indicated the date and cause of death, full name, class and territorial origin (burger of the city of Perm, for example), full age, date and place of funeral, and the name of the funeral priest.

The parish registers of Orthodox and Catholic parishes, as well as Jewish communities, were kept in Russian (probably Poland and the German colonies in the Volga region are an exception here), and Muslim ones - in Arabic. Records of births, marriages (in some cases, divorces) and deaths were carried out by religious organizations until 1917, and after the October Revolution these functions were transferred to the registry office system, although they finally passed to it only in the early 20s, and the books themselves went to archives. Parish registers were used by Soviet registry offices when clarifying information and issuing documents.

Partial information about finding the registry books you need can be found in this catalog. In addition, you should look for the surnames of your ancestors on the All-Russian Family Tree website.

How to obtain information from the archive: in person, through specialists or archivists

There are three ways to obtain information from archival funds: by working with documents yourself in your free time, or by entrusting the search to archive workers or professional researchers. The first option is the most inexpensive (if you live in the same city or have capital and time), but you need to keep in mind that the archive is open only on weekdays and, with rare exceptions, exclusively during business hours. The second option is reliable, but you will have to be patient - there are many requests, and few workers, but the price is fixed (see price list on the archive website). The third option is somewhat risky, but faster; Professional genealogists can also be recommended to you in the archive itself - the institution’s employees know many of the regular visitors and their interests.

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How to access funds

Personally

Arriving at the archive (don't forget to take your passport with you), write an application, get approval to work with documents, and go to the reading room. The head of the reading room will help you determine the funds necessary for study. The more accurate your information is and the more clearly and sensitively you convey it to the archivist, the easier the search will be.

The reading room employee will give you inventories - catalogs of archival files. Each case has its own code by which it can be found. For example, OGACHO, I-226-4-121 (or I-226, op.4, d. 121) is the United State Archive of the Chelyabinsk Region, fund I-226, 4th inventory, file 121 (parish register of those born in Jewish community of Chelyabinsk in 1882). Having found the necessary files for the years you need, write out such codes on the order form, indicating there your full name and purpose of the research, as well as the date on which you order these files for research (not on the same day). At the same time, you can receive from three to ten files at a time (depending on the archive), but some archival files may end up being treated for fungus, some are embroidered and being restored, some are in the hands of researchers, and some If they are lost, the archivist will inform you about this.

On the specified day, come to the archive and take the files you ordered, looking for your ancestors in them. It is possible to make extracts from archival documents, but photography is usually prohibited. Do not forget: you cannot violate the rules of the archive, and the archivist is not a servant, but the main expert and guide in archival matters, in a word - your best friend in the search, which, if properly positioned, can suggest something and help in some way, greatly speeding up the process.

Remotely

You can obtain information from the archive without a personal visit: write a request on a form (available on the archive’s website), if necessary, attach copies or scans of documents confirming your relationship with the people you are looking for, and send it to the archive’s mail. After some time they will answer you and you will be able to clarify the cost and speed of execution of the request.

Foreign archives

Certain difficulties may arise if your ancestors were from other countries, but they can be resolved in the same way as with Russian archives. You need to determine the location of the required archive, write a letter there (in the local language or in English, even to the former republics of the USSR - out of respect for the archive workers, who can, in turn, answer you in Russian out of politeness) and wait for an answer, and further act according to circumstances.

Form a tree

Having found the necessary information, you can proceed to the main thing - to bring all the information into a single whole and create a family tree. This is where specialized sites (such as Geni.com or Genery.com or the Family Tree Builder app) can help you. In addition, you can read recommendations and ask for advice on a genealogy forum.

If there is no information

Considering the revolutions and wars that have occurred even over the last century, it is not surprising that many archives are frighteningly incomplete (and they also had to hand over waste paper!). Don't give up if you find out there are a lot of gaps. Most likely, the white spots will not disappear at all - this is normal, we will not learn the fullness of information about the past, something is inevitably lost irretrievably. But if you strive to fill all the gaps in information, honor and praise to you. And good luck.

When compiling your pedigree (as well as when searching for any information about your relatives), two ways are possible: I - making a request to the appropriate archive and II - independent work with archival documents in the reading room of the archive.

In any case, at the beginning of the work it is necessary to study the family archive, collect and analyze preserved documents (copies) of parents, grandparents and other relatives, photographs, or information (memories) of relatives and friends.

I. When contacting the archive with a request to search for information about a member of the clan you are interested in, it is advisable to have the following information:

surname, first name, patronymic (for women - maiden name and in marriage - depending on the number of marriages);

date of birth: year, month, day, if unknown, then approximately, within several years;

place of baptism (adoption) - cathedral, church, church, parish, etc.;

place of birth: province (region), district (district), volost, city, village, hamlet, etc., in major cities– part, plot, street, house;

nationality;

location;

date of death (if not known exactly, approximately), burial place: necropolis, cemetery, churchyard, mass grave;

religion, whether there was a transition to another faith;

class: nobility, honorary citizenship, Cossacks, clergy, urban class (burghers, guilds (artisans), merchants, peasants;

rank, rank, title;

marital status: where the marriage (wedding) took place - cathedral, church, church, parish, etc., when, last name, first name, patronymic of the wife (husband);

place of duty (where, when); titles, titles, ranks, awards (what, when and for what);

education: name of educational institution, faculty, when you studied and graduated;

ownership of land, real estate (where): province, district, city, village, etc.);

what documents do you have about the person you are interested in and can you provide copies of them;

other facts and details known to you that you consider necessary to provide for the search: citizenship, nationality (in relation to foreign citizens), the fact of guardianship, the fact of adoption, being on trial, family emigration, etc.

When contacting the archive with a request to search for information about your relatives (ancestors), you should keep in mind that such requests are executed by state archives on a paid basis. The price list is approved by the director of the archive. Addresses of state archives can be found on the “Archives of Russia” website (federal archives, regional archives).

II. At independent work With archival documents in the reading room of the archive, we recommend that you first familiarize yourself with the relevant literature:

“Genealogical information in the state archives of Russia,” reference manual. VNIIDAD, M., 2004.

“Index of types of documents containing genealogical information (XVI century - 1917).” VNIIDAD, 1998.

Romanova S.N."Research of genealogical information in the state archives of Russia." "Bulletin of the Archivist", No. 5 (41), 1997.

Onuchin A.N."Your family tree: a practical guide to drawing up a family tree." Perm, 1992.

Romanova S.N.“How to find your roots”, “Bulletin of the Archivist”, 1998, No. 2(44), No. 3(45).

Antonov D.N., Antonova I.A.“Partition books: time to collect stones”, “Domestic Archives”, 1996, Nos. 4, 5.

In the reading rooms of the archives you can take advantage of expert advice and familiarize yourself with the materials prepared in a number of subjects Russian Federation special reminders to help people engaged in genealogical research.

At the first stage of your independent search, you need to contact the archive(s) of the region with which the life of the person you are interested in was connected. If most of the information about the wanted person(s) is missing, we recommend restoring a block of information about them, going in an ascending order, i.e. from parents to grandparents, from them to great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers, etc., using personal information stored in state and municipal archives (personal, personal, award, pension files, etc.) and information preserved in the family archive.

In connection with possible renaming of settlements and various changes in the administrative-territorial division of the Russian state, to more accurately determine the search location, it is advisable to use directories on administrative-territorial division Russian Empire and the USSR.

Most do not remember the names of third-generation ancestors - great-grandparents, not to mention distant and more complex connections. Although such knowledge would help to get to know yourself better, expand the world and the circle of your loved ones.

Our article will help correct the omission. In it we will tell you how and where you can find out your ancestry for free by last name and other data, find distant relatives online and create your own family tree.

Why do you need to know about your ancestors?

This information will strengthen your connection with your family and give you something to think about. Genealogy is important for the following reasons:

• Health. It’s not for nothing that doctors ask about the presence of certain diseases. Having before your eyes the example of grandparents, great-grandparents and great-grandparents, it is easy to track the main diseases that appear with age and prevent their development. And also assume difficulties that your children may have.

• Fate. Every person is a product of upbringing. The main models that determine our lives are those that we adopted from our parents. Therefore, the stories of moms and dads about your and their childhood, values ​​and relationships within the family will shed light on the reasons for the formation of many of your beliefs and will help you find a direction for changing yourself and your life for the better.

• Community. The process of searching for information about your roots brings you closer together. People who are aware of a commonality with someone are not alone. They always have brothers, sisters, nephews who are like them and able to understand.

• Understanding yourself and those around you. If most of your paternal or maternal relatives have a technical mindset, have worked and are working as engineers, programmers, technologists, you can also discover similar abilities in yourself, start looking for priority areas for self-development, and prefer the business to which you have always been drawn to an unloved profession.

• Building self-esteem. This aspect is especially important for young children. They sense community much more keenly and feel more confident when they have something to be proud of, when they can admire their relatives and cite them as an example. Stories about worthy deeds of family members are very useful for shaping a child’s personality.

Stories about ancestors, their strengths and features of everyday life help to better understand the world. The actions of these people are assessed differently, through the prism of unity. Everything good and bad that concerns loved ones evokes more vivid emotions: pride, admiration or surprise, confusion, disappointment. The experience of someone who is related to you by blood has a much stronger influence on your attitude.

Knowing your blood ties is useful from a practical point of view. Maintaining relationships with people from other cities and different professions can be a good reason and help for travel, a source of new impressions and acquaintances.

Therefore, even if you are not looking for famous ancestors and prefer to be proud of your own achievements, information about your family in its entirety will be useful to you.

What does a surname mean in terms of pedigree?

This information will help you determine class, profession, distinctive feature or the place of residence of your ancestors. People named themselves according to certain characteristics. For example:

• By the names of birds or animals: Sorokin, Orlov, Zaitsev, Kozlov, Lebedev.
• By occupation: Melnikov, Ponomarev, Rybakov, Plotnikov.
• By father's name: Vasiliev, Fedorov, Egorov, Ivanov, Nikitin.
• By territorial characteristics: Sibiryak, Donskoy, Kareltsev, Ufimtsev.
• Highlighting one or another feature of appearance: Belousov, Shcherbakov, Nosov, Ryzhkov.
• By nationality: Polyakov, Tatarinov, Grekov.
• Some surnames appeared in the process of Russification: Sarkisovs, Kalnins.
• By name Orthodox holidays: Trinity, Uspensky, Preobrazhensky.

The latter were often referred to as clergymen and were usually associated with a parish headed by a priest. There were also “seminar” gender designations. They were awarded to those who graduated educational institution, were invented based on the names of birds, animals, plants, names of saints and philosophers, transliterations of words from Latin. Such formations often ended in “sky/-tsky”.

For peasants engaged in waste farming, surnames could change when changing activities. An excellent example is the story of the Ryabushinsky merchant family. The founder was Yakovlev - named after his father. But in the course of his activities, he received the right to be called first Rebushinsky, and then Ryabushinsky. At the same time, his brothers on his father’s side were called Stekolshchikovs.

The boyar and princely dynasties were named on a territorial basis, indicating the lands that belonged to them: Tver, Tyumen, Meshchersky, Yeletsky. Jews also often used place of residence as a basis for designation.

How to find out your family's ancestry by last name

The surname gives a lot of clues, but it is impossible to find out about your roots, guided only by this information. It’s easier to start searching when the information is not limited to just this data. The more knowledge you have, the easier it is to organize the further process.

First, study the family archive (photos, documents, awards) and talk with your mother, father, grandparents. For further research, the following data is most important to you:

• Full name of the person. For women, a maiden name is important.
• Date and place of birth. If we are talking about a deceased person, we need information about the place and date of death.
• Parents' full name.
• If a person was born before the revolution - class.
• Religious affiliation.
• Moving for permanent residence to other cities by year.
• Education. Where was it obtained?
• Place of work. For military personnel - place of service.
• Prizes and awards received as a result of professional, scientific or educational activities.
• Full name and date of birth of the spouse and children.

For clarity, attach several photographs or images at different ages to the personality card.

Another important aspect is the systematization of information. The number of people on your lists will increase exponentially with each generation. Even if you study only your direct ancestors, by the seventh generation there will be 126 people or more.
Keeping written records at this point will be difficult. It is more convenient to use electronic databases: Access or Excel. Or download and install special programs, whose functionality allows you to assemble materials on the history of the family as simply and clearly as possible. Examples of such software: Genbox Family History, Genopro, Ages, “Tree of Life”.

How to find your family's pedigree by last name: a review of useful online services

Most sites that offer to tell you about your ancestors based on last name are scams. But there are specialized resources that will be useful in the search process.

Many programs for creating a family tree, if you have access to the Internet, check the information of other users of this software and send a signal if there are matches. Such programs include Family Tree Builder, which is an offline version of MyHeritage.

• MyHeritage. Israeli site with 60 million users. It allows different ways structure information, distinguishes faces in photographs and understands codes mobile devices. The version for use in the Russian-speaking space has some shortcomings due to poor-quality Russification: the “patronymic” field is missing, files are not always loaded correctly, and there are sections of texts in English.

• FamilySpace. This resource, intended for drawing up a family tree, competes in functionality social networks. Here you will find city directories, address books, lists of students and honorary residents of various localities, census results and other useful information.

Also on the Internet you can find many companies offering paid help in exploring your roots. They conduct research in archives and on Internet resources based on the collected information about your ancestors. The received materials are compiled into a family tree or book.

How to find out your family's pedigree on the Internet for free

• www.obd-memorial.ru - contains data about captured, missing or dead soldiers from the Second World War. For most of those listed, the year and place of birth are indicated. Here you can find information about where he lived by the last name of your grandfather or great-grandfather. It also often contains the names of those who received notification of the death of a serviceman. Thanks to this, you will clarify the fate of your ancestor and find out the name of his father, mother or wife.

• www.vgd.ru - the individual pages of this site are not distinguished by their beautiful design and convenient structure, but here you will find a lot of interesting information on genealogy, practical advice on working with archives and building connections with new relatives. The resource has a well-developed knowledge base, allows you to search for people by region and last name, and contains data from federal, departmental and regional archives in Russia and neighboring countries.

• Those looking for victims of repression will find the resources “Last Address” and “Everyone’s Personal File” useful. And also lists.memo.ru and stalin.memo.ru.

• www.shpl.ru - state public historical library. Contains many reference books useful to those interested in the pre-revolutionary era. Here you will find memorial books for each province, in which people who held more or less important positions are recorded, starting from land surveyor. Thanks to the directories “All Petersburg” and “All Moscow”, this resource will help people whose relatives lived in either of these two capitals.

• Google Books will search for your ancestor by last name in scans of reference books and other publications digitized and posted in various Russian archives.

• Find information about Holocaust victims in the Yad Vashem database and on the website www.jewishgen.org.

How to find out your family's pedigree and find it in the archive for free

Before starting your search, it is worth studying various guidelines for conducting such research, as this is a long process that requires patience and the right approach.

• Remember: you will be dealing with government organization, which exists to provide information services to authorities and ordinary citizens. The primary responsibility of such institutions is to ensure the safety of documentation. Responding to requests from individuals is not a priority. Therefore, a reaction to your letter may take several months or six months.

• To simplify the process, you need to clearly understand what exactly you are looking for and what documents usually contain such information: birth records, household registers, house books, audit reports, confessional statements.

• Working with real papers is also technically complex. Paper deteriorates greatly over the years, so you will have to be especially careful when using documents.

• You may have problems understanding what is written. Typewritten texts appeared only at the beginning of the 20th century; before that, papers were filled out by clerks. When diving deep into history, you will have to deal with handwritten materials.

If you do not conduct all the research yourself, it is difficult to find out information about your ancestry for free in the archive, since its employees do not charge payment only for social and legal inquiries. These include certificates and documents relating to:

• Salary.
• Military service.
• Participation in eliminating the consequences of emergency situations.
• Peacekeeping activities.
• Work experience.
• Received education.
• Elections to elective positions.
• Healing and rehabilitation.
• Receiving honorary titles and state awards.
• Persons who suffered as a result of the actions of German troops during the Second World War, or victims of repression.

Subject to the subject matter, a fee may be charged if required:

• Urgent execution of the request (1-5 days after application).
• Copying or reissuing a certificate to replace one lost or damaged due to the applicant’s fault.
• Production of several duplicate documents.

Searching for thematic, bibliographic, genealogical information refers to paid services. Therefore, before contacting the archive, find its website, make sure it is available necessary documents and check out the price list.

Archive staff will help you find information if your request contains the following information:

• Full name of the citizen or name of the institution requesting the data.

• Return address.

• A clearly formulated topic: what exactly do you want to know, what data do you already have.

• Region and search period. It is pointless to search for a specific person using all the materials, but the request to find information if limited by area and time frame is doable.

If your request does not contain this information, they will not be able to answer it. Also, do not rush and demand information about the entire family at once. Progress your research gradually, person by person.

If there is no response to your letter for a long time, it is worth calling the archive and checking whether your request has been received. And then call the employees several more times and find out how the search for information is going. In some cases, this reduces the time it takes to wait for a response.

Studying a family tree is a fascinating process, reminiscent of a detective investigation. Having gone through all its stages, you will learn a lot about yourself, your ancestors and the history of the country.